“The CrossEyes concept is built on honesty, dedication and smartdesign. Through honest and hardworking employees, and low and transparent prices, CrossEyes is able to create an environment where you receive the right guidancewhen looking for quality spectacles. CrossEyes has hundreds of different custom made frames, which ensures that everyone can find glasses suitable for both their look and personality. At CrossEyes, we do not hide the prices – we display them for everyone to see”

On Wednesday 23rd March I was invited to attend the official Press and blogger launch of a brand new Opticians called Crosseyes. I had seen a few weeks earlier the signage go up on the shop front and even before I was contacted I was very interested the simplistic signage made me immediately very curious about what was to come and I immediately hopped onto Google. One quick Google image search of the types of glasses on offer and I knew I would definitely want to check them out, then only about a week later I got the email and knew it was fate! they are located on the Ormeau Road in South Belfastbeside the fabulous Kaffeo which makes it very easy to locate the shop as it is only about 10 minutes from the city centre.

When I arrived I of course being such an early bird was the first one there and I got chatting to the lovely instore team. Paul the optician explained that he had always wanted to start his own opticians and when he discovered the brand he knew that they exactly matched the vision he had for what he wanted to create. What I was immediately struck by was how personal not only the event was but just how lovely the whole team where, I am sure any of my speccy friends out there can relate to the horror that can be getting eye tests but you immediately felt like they would take your own personal needs into consideration and we got chatting as if we were old friends.

Once I had talked to the whole team and had a couple of cheeky glasses of prosecco the fabulous Sarah guided me around the whole collection showing me the amazing choice of frames on offer. I literally was spoilt for choice. Anyone who has seen the typical cat eye frames I wear will know I prefer something statement but not giving too strong Dame Edna vibes so seeing such a wide variety from classic shapes to new and exciting takes on the classics was really exciting to me. Anyone who was at the event will know that I fell particularly in love with a pair that I had first spotted on the companies instagram ( see HERE) a few weeks ago and as soon as I saw them they were on my face within seconds.

They were from the Bamboo range and what I love most is the subtle details such as the lens being very rounded and the small gap left between the lens and the cat eye frame, the natural shading of the bamboo made it feel like the glasses would suit a huge variety of hair colours or eye colours. What struck me the most was how light the frames felt on. As I said before I love a good cat eye however both of my own pairs I have from ASOS can feel rather heavy if I am wearing them for a longer period of time.

Another favourite were this take on the classic aviator, what I don’t think is too clear in the photo is that the nose bridge area is slightly more detailed than the typical design which just added an extra little bit of interest to the frames.

One key element to the Cross eyes approach to everything is there standard pricing list which means unlike other opticians that include hidden costs everything is inclusive and what you see on the wall is what you pay:

Another great factor to note is that you can get every frame either made into glasses or you can also get them made into sunglasses plus they have a wide array of lens colours ranging from clear right through the rainbow as well as mirrored lens ( How 1990s!)

Once I had been shown around the range I decided to have a bit of play time and ended up trying on nearly all of the frames in the store and believe me there are alot to choose from! I teamed up with my Megan and Lucy ( linked below) and we collectively probably tried on every pair twice, we also ate about a million brownies and pesto bites as well as probably made Paul and the team wish they hadn’t bought party poppers!!

check out my instagram HERE for all the behind the scenes pics from the night.

I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to the whole Belfast team, they put on a really great night which ended with drinks in the lovely Brew Bot just up the road and a few games of connect 4 and frustration!

Something which I feel that I haven’t openly spoken about on my blog is my change in diet since leaving university. I think anyone who has gone through the final year of a degree will sympathise to a certain extent but in the final months I literally was only focusing on staying up for as long as I could to finish as much work as I could, this lead to my diet becoming incredibly poor and full of high sugar, high calorie, high fat and just generally not what I should have been eating. Since finishing my degree however I have tried to undo this by really switching my diet and exercise routine to actual include an exercise routine into my weeks. So when I got an email telling me about a new range of low fat, high protein, gluten free products that were coming to stores I became really interested to find out more. Karen Daly and her husband are the brains behind WOW ( which stands for War On Weight) after her own weight-loss journey Karen has devoted her life to spreading the word that good food can taste great and you can loss weight without feeling like you have to give up all of your favourite meals.

One point I want to make before going into more detail of the event etc I want to make it clear that I am not trying to make this post advocating weight loss. I spoke at the beginning of the year about being in a good place with my body however finishing my degree was tougher than I could have ever imagined and upon completing all of my work I came out of that post university haze realising that the toll taken on me during the final few months and the rubbish I had consumed had affected my mental health alot more than I was probably willing to admit at the time. Please read my post from the start of the year to fully understand my feelings HERE I still fully stand up everything in that post but I want to make it clear that I needed to make the changes for me and how my relationship with my body has changed in the last few months and the place that I hope to be with my body within the next few months.

I brought my mum along to the event with me because we are on our journey together and we were both really interested to here if Karen gave any tips or tricks which would help our own personal journeys along. On arrival we were given some “skinny” mojitos which were delicious and a great accompaniment to the food later on. The event was held at Cast and Crew Belfast which is situated nearly opposite the Titanic Museum. Now anyone who knows the area will know that the Belfast Met campus which I studied at is right beside Cast and Crew, I really wish it had been around when I was studying because it is a lovely little cafe with a cool edgy look and if last night was anything to go buy I can imagine the food is probably great to! After we had the cocktail welcome we waited for the BBQ to heat up so we could try out some of the products from the range.

We got to try the steak burgers as well as a sausage with garlic and sweet chilli, both of which were delicious and really filling despite being so low in fat. This was all accompanied by a lovely fresh side salad and the option of a feta cheese salad. Mum and I both couldn’t get over just how lovely the food was and that we definitely wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between these and a higher fat option. One thing I have noticed in recent months is how when you get a meal which is either lower fat or slimming that the flavors don’t tend to be as strong, now this is not the case with everything but I was really WOWed by just how nice the food was.

After we had chance to have our food event host Cathy Martin and WOW founder Karen Daly talked us through the whole range which at the minute consists of eight products, which include 4 meal options for example stir frys and meatballs and 4 meat options including both of the items we sampled on the night. Karen also talked us through the benefits of the products and how they can work into your diet. It was a very interesting night and mum and I both left feeling like we had learnt some interesting facts that we want to incorporate into our own diet.

A massive thank you to team WOW and CMPR for letting us walk away with some of the products to try for ourselves at home, I know we are looking forward to dinner for the next few nights!

If you want to find out any more information on the products check out their site HEREand their FacebookHERE

On Thursday night I was invited to attend the launch of the new brain child from the founders of Mr and Mrs Stitchcalled ” The Stitch”. The concept behind the stitch is a blog/journal space dedicated to promote the brands sold on the web store but to also produce content which can inspire and interest a much wider base. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the event with my latest blogging bestest Megan from Vent // Threads

So back to the stitch, basically if you are from Belfast you would probably be familiar with the shops in Wellington Place just down from city hall called Rio Brazil, well Mr and Mrs Stitch is the on-line version of the stores, do you get it? So the Stitch journal is just being launched and is online HERE if you guys want to have a browse. The store itself if mostly high end designers, so perfect if you are looking for an item that you aren’t going to find anywhere else.

The event was held in their beautiful new office based also in the city centre and rather conveniently just across the road from the Rio Brazil stores. The lovely folks from Chinawhite ( one of Belfast’s hottest newest nightclubs) provided delicious cocktails for the guests whilst we talked with the owners of the brand as well as shop assistants, finding out all about the shop and the online blog. What I loved about the event was just how relaxed the whole thing was, I was able to have a good catch up with friends that I haven’t seen in months and just have a lovely relaxed time, it was held on the day of my sisters formal and I had been on the go since 9am so it was nice to have a bit of chill time in great company. During the night we got to go through the rails and style up an outfit from their newest drop of stock so when the images are online I will insert my attempt into the post.

I just wanted to say a massive thank-you to the team at The Stitch for a lovely relaxed enjoyable event, especially Laurina who kindly organised the invites. I am hoping to pair up with The Stitch in the coming months so keep you eyes peeled for that!

Today a yellow warning was issued over Belfast as the lovely people over at CMPR officially launched Belfast Fashion Week for Spring Summer 15.

They have kept to the same amazing venue as last season settling into Life Church on Bruce Street, which is only a short walk from the main city centre. Today was a day to showcase some of the incredible local talent we will see on the catwalks as well as the shops and boutiques that would be participating. Some of my personal highlights where local up and coming designer Chloe Dougan

Jayne is M&S and local boutique Spoilt Belle alongside Phoebe in Debenhams and again Spoilt Belle( image via BRENDAN GALLAGHER)

What I find so great about Belfast fashion week is how much they nurture and expose new local talent, this season is Chloe Dougan’s first which can also be said for stylist turned designer Sara Neil and local design duo Neil Coogan and John Gerard O’Neil who all show for the first time this March. Fashion week is being held from the 19th to the 22nd of March this year and if you guys are interested you can buy tickets HERE . I have been a volunteer with BFW for the last seven seasons and each season I get even more excited about what is in-store! I think Cathy Martin and the team have so much in-store for us this time around that it is definitely not to be missed with so many different events happening during the week there is definitely something for everyone!

Adriana, Stefania, Rebecca and Niamh showcase one of the big colour storys for the season ( image via BRENDAN GALLAGHER)

Ashleigh, Carys and Aimee again showcasing some of the bold graphic prints we can expect to see in the shows ( image via BRENDAN GALLAGHER)

So the toughest part of today was working out what I wanted to wear, knowing that you are going to be surrounded by a room full of local fashions finest is a tough ask for someone who isn’t all that used to dressing up by I gave it my best shot:

I think overall I was really pleased with my outfit it was for me a perfect way to introduce spring summer colours when it is still freezing outside. My hair looks so dark and flat in this photo but it is more of an auburn in real-life. I am just so happy to have a lovely photo of myself in colour and in a dress to prove to the doubters out there that I can wear something other than all black!

If this was the just the launch I cannot wait to see what this season will have in-store, make sure to keep an eye on the blog in March as I usually do a couple of backstage posts such as THIS ONE from last season.

I hope you enjoyed this guys, thanks to the wonderful Brendan Gallagher for taking such great pictures whilst both of my cameras have decided to break down in the space of a week